Sive novus socius sive Funditor Societatis,
For everyone who visits our pages, my best wishes for Saturnalia and all your Winter Holidays. It won't cure your ills, but we need some pleasure and some relaxation amid all our work, college-work, family-tasks and so on.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
From the SVR Calendar (http://www.societasviaromana.net/Collegium_Religionis/caldec.php):
Ante diem XVI Kalendas Ianuarias (NP) SATURNALIA. Feriae: Originally a single feastday for the dedication of a temple to Saturnus on the Capitoline Hill in 497 BCE, in 217 BCE the festival was reorganized and expanded. This day was celebrated by a public sacrifice at the temple of Saturnus, followed by a public feast, the convivium, begun in 217 BCE. Revelers left the convivium shouting "Io Saturnalia!" [Ho! Saturnlia!].
"Ausonian swains, a race from Troy derived, make merry with rough rhymes and boistrous mirth."
(Virgil, Georg. II.385-6)
Another thought is that, half a year after the military disaster at Lake Trasimenus (in June, 536 AUC/217 BCE), Rome had great need for boosting morale and uniting the people, and it was partly because of this that the festival was updated. It celebrates Saturnus, of course, the god of Agriculture and representative of the Golden Age of Man. The courts and schools closed, and even military operations were suspended so that soldiers could celebrate. It is a time of goodwill, tomfoolery, feasting, visiting people, and exchanging gifts. And whereas the disastrous effects of the Battle of Trasimenus were eventually reversed, Saturnalia never went out of style. For my part, I believe it continues to this day as Christmas celebrations. Hanukkah, Saturnalia, Yule, Christmas, Kwanzaa - in any event, it's a holiday in good company.
![Partytime :party:](./images/smilies/1000balloons.gif)
Novum ad annum progrediamur. Valete.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/saturnalia.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_festivals